He vaguely recalled the succubus whispering in his ear.
But none of that mattered anymore.
Right now, he had to find a way to survive this Wind of Aeolus.
Suppressing the unease in his heart, he manipulated his bones to flatten out.
[Resilience] and [Hard Bone] continuously reinforced his bones as his arms shielded his chest, preventing the soul fire inside from being snuffed out.
[Self-Healing] constantly repaired the tiny, weathered cracks on the surface of his bones.
He kept compressing the soul fire inside his chest, condensing the flames as much as possible so they wouldn't be blown out by the wind.
Even so, the surface of his bones became heavily pitted, looking as though it had been gnawed on by countless ants.
All around him, white bone dust mixed with the gale, continuously battering his body.
Li Xiuman realized just how important resistance skills were.
Last time, if not for [Fire Resistance], it would have been absolutely impossible for him to survive the searing heat of [Liquid Fire].
This time, he had been utterly screwed...
The wind stopped.
Only a battered, broken skeleton remained standing on the spot, the tiny blue flame burning inside its chest looking as though it might extinguish at any second.
For a moment, Lucia even thought the skeleton had died.
But in the next second, the deep-blue flame inside its chest flickered and flared up once more.
Its hollow eye sockets also seemed to be rekindled, fire burning within them once again.
It had survived.
Li Xiuman shook his body, barely managing to keep his footing.
However, Lucia clearly had no intention of letting him off so easily.
With a wave of her hand, two succubi stepped forward to steady Li Xiuman's swaying body.
Then, she walked over to him.
A pale blue crystal, different from the last one, appeared in her palm.
It was a size smaller than the previous one.
This confirmed Li Xiuman's suspicion: Lucia chose the size of the crystal for the second round based on how the skeleton performed in the first round.
This amount was just enough to kill a skeleton.
If his guess was correct, she was testing the lethal performance of various elemental crystals on skeletons.
“Let's try this,” she said.
Without hesitation, she stuffed the crystal into the flame burning in Li Xiuman's chest.
The moment the crystal touched the flame, the fire flared up violently as if it had met an accelerant.
The fire changed from deep blue to pale blue, enveloping his body like a pale blue gale.
It scoured his body like a roaring hurricane.
Within just a few breaths, the bones across Li Xiuman's entire body shrank by a whole size.
White bone dust kicked up into the air.
This was probably karma for grinding his colleagues to dust and scattering them to the wind over the past few nights, Li Xiuman thought, finding humor in his misery.
Soon, Li Xiuman's teeth began to fall out of his skull one by one, and his cranium was worn down to a paper-thin layer before being blasted full of holes of various sizes.
Inside those holes, the deep-blue fire flickered constantly, yet stubbornly refused to go out.
His ribs snapped one by one and fell from his body.
His arm and leg bones were ground down to the thickness of a pinky finger, and his finger bones fell off piece by piece.
His entire body was on the verge of collapsing into a pile of loose bones.
Yet, Li Xiuman's consciousness remained completely clear.
Only when his body reached the absolute breaking point did Li Xiuman access his status panel and allocate his Free Stat Point into Constitution.
[Self-Healing] and the regenerative power from his newly increased Constitution blew the horn for a counteroffensive at the same time.
His skeleton seemed to emit a faint glow as his broken bones were rapidly repaired.
On the side, Lucia widened her eyes, staring intently at Li Xiuman's self-healing skeleton.
“It's just like last time.”
“Is it some special talent of this skeleton? An extremely powerful self-healing ability?”
Lucia stroked her smooth chin and muttered to herself.
Then she looked away. Having determined that the remaining elemental power would not destroy this skeleton, she lost interest.
While this skeleton's self-healing ability was exceptionally strong, it still wasn't worth paying too much attention to.
“Next,” she commanded.
Li Xiuman had finally survived the raging wind. He slumped to the ground, staring at the panel floating before him.
[Ding! Constitution +1]
[Acquired skill: Wind Resistance Lv.1]
He waited for a long time, but there was no sign of the [Wind Magic Lv.1] he had been longing for.
Dammit! What about Wind Magic? Where was his huge, awesome Wind Magic?!
Although frustrated, Li Xiuman could guess the reason.
It was probably because the wind crystal Lucia used this time was too small.
But if she had stuffed a large one in, he would probably be dead by now.
Dammit, he had been totally played.
If he had possessed [Wind Resistance] beforehand, he definitely wouldn't have been in such a pathetic state this time.
Li Xiuman got up from the ground and wandered off, acting clueless and foolish.
Elemental attributes were divided into four main categories: fire, water, earth, and wind.
Lucia had now tested fire and wind, so the next experiments would likely be earth and water.
Just in case, should he gather both [Earth Resistance] and [Water Resistance] to prevent any disasters?
By the time the experiment ended, Li Xiuman was once again the only handsome survivor left standing.
Since they had been colleagues for a brief time, Li Xiuman silently mourned for these lovely companions.
They were all excellent skill repositories, and Li Xiuman felt deeply honored to have known them.
The succubi cast their gazes over Li Xiuman one after another, probably marveling at how incredibly tough this guy's life was, having survived long enough to outlast two batches of skeletons.
There was no helping it; he was just made of tougher stuff.
The third batch of skeletons was quickly replenished.
Li Xiuman was even more experienced this time.
He smoothly found a skeleton with [Quiet Steps] and swapped [Resilience] for it.
Then, under the cover of night, he quietly ambushed his lovely colleagues.
Two a night, sometimes three, his movements growing smoother with each attempt.
He scattered so much bone ash that several succubi barely flew anymore, as if they could feel the particulate pollution in the air.
Li Xiuman's level also rose to Lv.5, nearing Lv.6.
However, tonight, he didn't plan on making a move.
He had been too rampant recently. During the day, while hanging around the succubi, he had overheard them complaining that there seemed to be fewer skeletons than before and that the plaza was looking rather empty.
The succubi never for a second suspected that a skeleton was acting against its own kind.
Faced with their trust, Li Xiuman felt a pang of pride at having earned such unquestioning faith from the enemy.
The next day, Lucia returned once more.
Li Xiuman's active skills had already been swapped to [Earth Resistance], [Water Resistance], [Resilience], and [Self-Healing].
After all, he didn't really trust the intelligence gathered from the succubi anymore.
Once again, Lucia had a succubus drag Li Xiuman out from the pile of skeletons.
Dammit, this demon really couldn't wait to see him dead.
And here he was, wanting to let his colleagues test the waters first.
“This time is the water element. You have to endure it, okay?”
“Water Prison.”
Lucia looked at the skeleton before her and spoke with a smile.
Though her tone was gentle, she did not hesitate to unleash a lethal spell capable of killing him.
Streams of water condensed out of thin air and enveloped Li Xiuman, forming a spherical, floating Water Prison.
Water pressure steadily increased, and the rushing current scoured his body.
Under the immense water pressure, his bones began to bend one by one.
However, with the bonus from [Resilience], Li Xiuman managed to endure the Water Prison with relative ease.
It was the advantage of having 9 points in Constitution.
Lucia showed an excited expression, then took out a deep-blue crystal even larger than the previous fire crystal, stuffing it directly into the fire in the skeleton's chest cavity.
Another bout of agony followed, but by allocating points to Constitution, he managed to push through.
Rate on N.U.
